In partnership with New Jersey state government, this interdisciplinary center will develop a strong program of health services research, with a particular emphasis on utilizing and linking state health data. It will bring together experts from multiple disciplines throughout partner institutions to apply their skills to problems of health services research and provide support in developing applications for competitive funding in health services research, including biostatistical, econometric, and other methodological consultation; assistance with dataset development and acquisition and with pilot data analysis; methods workshops; liaison with state agencies and other data producers; and internal peer review. The Center will build on successful past efforts to link, and utilize for health services research, administrative data and other large healthcare datasets. It will develop partnerships between data producing agencies and researchers and will build on existing activities in applied state health policy research to develop a program of more-rigorous health services research suitable for peer-reviewed publication, national significance, and support through peer-reviewed funding mechanisms such as AHRQ R-O1 grants. The Center will: 1) encourage capable scholars working in neighboring disciplines to develop health services research applications, contribute to the recruitment of skilled health services researchers to the state, and provide support in application development aimed at addressing typical weaknesses; 2) strengthen health services research linkages between New Jersey state government and university based researchers; among separate academic units; and among academic disciplines relevant to MR, 3 provide training, consultation and technical assistance in biostatistics, health economics and other research methods; clinical issues; and sources and utilization of data; 4) develop data resources that can be used across multiple projects; and 5) conduct a research project on cardiac care which will examine the effectiveness of a state program to improve access and reduce disparities in care through an innovative certificate of need strategy. The research project will further the overall goals of the Center by strengthening state-university partnerships, developing expertise with state administrative data, providing pilot analyses for a larger R-O1 application, and providing a platform for a program of collaborative work on cardiac care quality and disparities in the state.